Venezuela and Colombia: war drums beating?

26 July 2010

North Korea has been belligerent, as mentioned in an earlier post (‘North Korea – just rhetoric?’), but there is another part of the world where tensions have been rising quite markedly. By that, I mean Colombia and Venezuela. These two neighbouring countries have not had the most cordial relationship for quite a long time, but the situation seems to be deteriorating pretty quickly. Colombia has accused Venezuela of aiding (and abetting) FARC and ELN. Colombia has provided some convincing documents and photographs to support its claims. As a result, Venezuela has severed ties with Colombia, and the Venezuelan army is reportedly on high alert. President Chávez, verbose like a certain Colonel Gaddafi, may just be talking up the possibility of an armed conflict for domestic purposes, but once uttered, words can have their own lives. Not a cheerful news, really.